Soxy rescued after falling into the Bay

By 9PM, all is dark, a cold front with tornado warnings has come and gone, and it’s getting time to fade out into dream state. When outta the blue, Paddy leaps from the salon in a panic. “Where’s Soxy?? Where’s Soxy??”

I went from faded dream state to all out panic in a matter of seconds. Running to the starboard hull, I called for Soxy…but no response. By now Paddy is outside in the cockpit, and the tone of his voice is frantic. We can both hear Soxy’s screams…and knew right way…she was in the water.

Soxy knows a limited version of the doggie paddle. Limited is the operative word. If she is in the water, we have seconds to save her. Paddy grabbed a flashlight and ran to the dock trying to locate her in the water, while I ran to the trampoline on Cat Maudy to untie the kayak. The thought of swimming in dark, Chesapeake Bay water – with unknown sea life (sharks) lurking….is not my cup of tea. But we’re talkin’ Soxy here – so this might be an exception.

From what seemed like forever, I untied the kayak, while Paddy yelled out to “hurry up, we’re losing her…”. The thought of losing Soxy sent a shot of adrenaline thru my weary bod – and like magic, I became Popeye the Sailor and lifted the kayak with one hand and ran with it to the cockpit – to hand it off to Paddy who was standing by on the dock.

“She’s under the dock” Paddy yells…and he quickly tossed the kayak into the water. “Get in”…he instructs me – as he holds the kayak for me.

It was not easy to navigate under the dock with the kayak, as the waters were high. I laid as far back as I could…and proceeded to look for Soxy. Surely she could not still be swimming, as at least 5 minutes have passed since Paddy first heard her screams.

Surprisingly, she responded to me as I called out her name. And there she was. A sopping wet cat, completely terrified, and only inches above the waterline – holding onto the underside of the dock with a death grip. I navigated the kayak to her, but she would not let go of the underside of the dock without a struggle. Finally, I got in position to grab her with both hands….and pulled her as hard as I could until she finally let go. And now, Soxy was under my death grip.

Paddy pulled the both of us out of the kayak. The adrenaline rush was over. The drama had played itself out, and both of us were too exhausted to move. Soxy lives to see another day, and I’m guessing she used one or two of her 9 lives that evening.

Needless to say, Soxy is on permanent “lock down” while aboard Cat Maudy. Oh, and we now have a big-ass fishing net ready in case Soxy wants to experiment with losing another 1 of those kitty lives…